News

December, 5

'Emotional' album for Amy's family

Amy Winehouse's father had to make himself listen to her new album to be sure of its quality - despite finding it "difficult" to hear his daughter sing.

Mitch Winehouse and the family wanted to be in agreement that the posthumous collection was better than the soul star's previous studio albums before they gave the green light for its release, he explained.

But this meant putting themselves through a painful process.

"The estate, which I'm a part of - my ex-wife and I - we could decide to put it out or not put it out, and when we went to listen to the album it was a very difficult time for us," he told ITV's Daybreak on the day of the record's release.

"It was very emotional. But we had to sit through it and after the first couple of songs we sort of calmed down a little bit. Our son was there as well and we all had to be in agreement that the album was of the same quality or better, in fact, than Frank and Back To Black, and we were more than pleasantly surprised."

The family were "astonished" at how beautiful the album was.

Speaking more than four months after his daughter was found dead in bed in her Camden flat in north London, Mr Winehouse said he still couldn't watch videos of her walking around.

"Listening to her sing - we had to with the album, we had to make sure it was OK, we had to do that but, you know, that's difficult too," he added.

The singer's new album, Amy Winehouse Lioness: Hidden Treasures, features original tracks as well as covers.

Some of the proceeds from it will go to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which was set up by her father.